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August 2011

So, it seems like the Craig James tracks I dropped earlier today are the most popular musical vanity project since Friday. In all honesty, the evident popularity of Mike Leach, as indicated by the antipathy for Craig James, makes me think that Cap'n Leach should stop waiting for a coaching gig and throw his hat into the ring as an independent political candidate. That "not crazy/not Mormon" platform would attract lots of folks disenchanted with the current guy.

And now for the heavy shit. Press kits from ill-considered musical projects by middling NFL running backs don't stay in pristine condition for 25+ years by accident. As it happens, the barn pictured at right kept the James Gang press kit safe until it was needed. This barn is in Vermont. This barn made it through in pretty good shape, but there are many barns, homes, bridges, roads, businesses, families, lives that are not. If you enjoy what we do here on the reg, or if you have been enjoying the Craig James suff, consider breaking off a donation to the VT Foodbank, (I made mine "in honor of Fire Craig James." I hope you will consider doing the same.) Thanks.

And greetings to all our new TCU friends. You all seemed nice when you came through here, though all the Tomlinson jerseys were a little weird. And, I enjoyed the close reading of the lyrics, but reject the conspiracy theory, mostly because I'd rather root for a team QBed by Tom Brady than for one QBed by Tony Romo. (In the spirit of healing, I'll add, FUCK KENNETH SIMS.)

Also, this bit of musical magic (the actual 7" record) can be yours. Make a donation of $50 or moe to this advocacy group for sex workers, email me the receipt, and I will mail you the damn thing.

The B Side: Silver Ball.mp3 We're no indie grinches here at the Cod, but a few items of note:

1) Lasers! Borderline visionary for mid 80s pop-country.

2) This record has a lot of swagger for a member of a squad that had just lost Super Bowl XX to the Bears 46-10. The bold predicitons made here for the following season turned out to be 11-5 and a loss to the Broncos in the divisional round. James put up 427 yards and 4 TD for the season.

3) Speaking of the Bears, the shadow of the Shufflin' Crew looms large here. Except, unlike the Super Bowl Shuffle, the only person to benefit from the proceeds of this record would appear to be Craig James himself. Also, the Bears did actually back up their boasts.

4) It appears that it rather than sing it himself, Craig James may have hired grown men to sing of his deeds.

If you would like to own this little gem, I will be working with the folks over at EDSBS to figuure out a way to do some good with the proceeds. And if you were curious, the back cover.

Until I was back in the SE, and in the market for some chicken (click to enlarge to see Paula in all her glory):

I confess, I considered buying the low end chicken instead -- the kind where they feed them to one another and shoot them full of Tetracycline, rather than walk out of the supermarket having purchased something w/ Deen's face on it. (Given my day job, buying groceries is always a small town adventure, but that's another story.)

If we take as a postulate here that there is some meaningful difference between Tyson chicken and Springer Mt. chicken, my reaction was more legitimately snobby and, you know, elitist, than what Bruni calls Bourdain out for. The Cod is no Cayce Pollard, what with her brand allergies, but is Deen-averse enough that this was a struggle -- the association with Smithfield is bad, her characatures of Southern foodways worse. Until Bruni's comment, or maybe the dawning of the age of Palinaquarius, it would not have occurred to me to feel bad about preferring things that are good to things that are not as good. I think Sean Brock and Hugh Acheson, to name two, do a better job representing the culinary possiblities of my adopted region than Deen does. It ain't all qunioa and sprouts with them, but they seem concerned about the impact of their food on both its sources and recipients. Is it bad to think that's better than deep frying butter on the Food Network?

Big weekend for the Cod, what with the class warfare and all. And yet rest assured, even when taking up the cudgels against media titans, we're never too busy to keep eyes peeled for something disturbing to start the week. Because that's what we do. And, esp in light of the Bruni/Deen contretemps, what could be better than something that celebrates, nay embraces our obesity epidemic, and gives it a little Jonestown twist to boot! That's why they call it Guiteau Monday.

Like Don King, Anthony Bourdain understands that it's feuds what put butts in the seats -- or gets the clicks in this case. The crux of his feud with Alice Waters is Waters' myopic elitism, and he's got a point. A food revolution that can feed some, but not all, Yale undergrads is a revolution that needs work.

What Deen says is true, but it's not relevant. It's a Palinesque misdirection tactic -- when someone raises a question about you, you respond by suggesting that the person asking the question is too fancy to understand how things are on Main Street.

Bruni's argument is hard to follow. He establishes his credentials as part of this culinary elite by mentioning his preference for Lucky Peach over Food Network Magazine, then tells us that pointing out that food that is bad for you, is, like, bad for you is the kind of thing this out-of-touch aristocracy does because they can't relate to real people. Also, if the ex-junkie ex-chef who makes a living eating testicles and drinking moonshine across the developing world is "paternalistic," I wish I'd known Bruni's dad.

This last graf suggests that the problem is not treating the poors with paternalistic condescenscion, but condescending to them more effectively, so they make better choices.

In the end , Bourdain emerges as the voice of reason by suggesting at least the possibility of some sort of middle ground between Deen and Waters. Bourdain is refreshing for his lack of interest in saving the world, but the guy who comes out of this smelling like a rose is Jamie Oliver. Grandstanding at times, yes, but he is one of the few food celebs who is actually making an effort to think on the scale necessary to address America's fat problem.

*In Bruni's defense, the same writers who bemoan the poor dietary habits of "Americans" are often the same folks celebrating restaurants that are serving food that is more expensive, but no healthier than the stuff Deen pushes. A while back, a tipster pointed out that Bittman lamented the demise of gut busting bistro M. Wells just hours after publishing to tax the foods that make poor people fat. Play us off, Lord Rockingham!

I can remember when the Domino's on Atlantic was a viable dining option, and I share the author's sense that some aspects of Brooklyn ca. 2011 are irritatingly twee. But. I've had handmade ice cream shops open near places I've lived. I've watched someone die of a cancer that metastasized to the brain. Really, the two experiences are quite different. Stupid, careless, lazy writing like this concerns me a good deal more than the alleged Portlandification of Brooklyn.

* I am not a professional oncologist, but I don't think tumors turn into cysts.

So it says on the Eater that Alice is dropping a line of tees to raise money for her edible schoolyard project:

Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters is teaming up with Levi's and four famous creative types to design some t-shirts to benefit her Edible Schoolyard Project. Above, t-shirts designed by Waters, author/illustrator Maira Kalman, directorSofia Coppola, musician David Byrne, and author Dave Eggers; each is available for $30 and comes with a tag that is actually a tiny bag of seeds. Sneaky.

Two thoughts:

A) Somewhere, Moby is pouting.

B) There is something unmistakably, insufferably Alicey about her dream team. Given the back and forth between Bourdain and Waters* (he called her Pol Pot, if memory serves), it's fun to imagine the illustrator filmmaker, musician and author who would reflect Bourdain's ethos as cozily as Team Alice reflects hers.**

Team Waters

Role

Team Bourdain

Maria Kalman

Illustrator

?

Sofia Coppola

Filmmaker

?

David Byrne

Musician

?

Dave Eggers

Author

?

*Given Bourdain's parallel beef w/ Paula Deen, Alice and Deen are now allies under the enemy of my enemy is my friend principle. Life is hilarious!

And now, for something completely different, it's Pope Benedict getting the Cod all fired up for another year of the day job. Generally not a fan, but he says something very important about the very real threats to the very notion of higher education in 2011: